BEFORE - the sink area was cramped and crowded.
Nick always hated the blue glass blocks. I didn't mind them too much.
The sink itself was resin, not porcelain, was scratched, discoloured and worn.
The handles on the mirror doors had fallen off and were held on with sellotape.
The switch for the lighting was inside the cupboard and very fiddly to turn on.
AFTER - new sink unit and the return wall with the glass bricks has gone, creating more space.
The sink is porcelain and the light is now a wall light with a switch where you would expect it - on the wall!
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BEFORE - on the shower side there were flimsy contiboard shelves crammed with stuff.
The floor was tiled in the same tiles as the shower cubicle and were uneven and broken.
The old toilet was not screwed down, just glued on top of the tiles.
Years of limescale deposits due to the very hard water meant it never really looked clean.
The lighting was an old fashioned spotlight above the shower and we suspected it was actually not designed for bathroom use.
AFTER - the dark grey floor tiles have been replaced with a lighter laminate floor.
The new toilet is neater and most definitely fixed properly to the floor.
The lighting is now a proper bathroom light.
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BEFORE - the wobbly shelves were very useful but full of stuff that never got used.
AFTER - new painted wood shelves, half as deep.
We have given away piles of towels and loads of unused toiletries.
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BEFORE - the ensuite bathroom was dark, cramped and very tired looking.
AFTER - the new one is more spacious, light and fresh.
We had to make a difficult decision about the shower cubicle. It's hard to argue for changing something that functions perfectly but is just old fashioned.
The en suite is open to the bedroom and I really wanted to have a door of some kind across the front of it. That meant we would have to change the shower cubicle to make space to either build another wall or hang a sliding door. We dreaded to think what plumbing surprises lay behind or underneath the shower and would almost certainly have had to have it all done professionally. All of that would have added a huge amount of money to the cost of the project. The en suite is, after all, literally in the bedroom so we compromised and decided to stick with the old shower and the curtains that we added a few years ago.
We're very pleased with the end result after a lot of work but minimal expense. We could have demolished everything and had a showroom en suite bathroom which would have cost ten times as much and been the best room in the house! Hard to justify for somewhere that you brush your teeth, take a shower and spend a penny!! Not to mention that was unlikely to add much to the value to the house when we do come to sell it.
Now at least it looks clean and neat and not something that a prospective buyer thinks they're going to have to fix immediately. I call it my "forty shades of grey" bathroom!!
